Benjamin Harrison

Served as President from 1889-1893
Era: Gilded Age
American Identity and Culture
In Chicago of 1889, Jane Addams founded the settlement home called the Hull House. Alarmed about the lives of the poor, numerous well-educated and idealistic women and men of the middle class settled themselves into neighborhoods that were dominantly occupied by immigrants to learn about the problems and the issues of immigrant families. These reformers hoped to reduce the amount of poverty by providing social services for immigrants in the neighborhood. The settlement homes taught English to immigrants, gave immigrant children an education at a young age, taught industrial jobs, and established theaters and music schools within the neighborhood.
In 1890, famous mudraker Jacob Riis published an article depicting the horrible conditions in the New York slums through a series of photographs. Later, Jacob Riis turned his findings into a book known as How the Other Half Lives. In How the Other Half Lives, Riis depicts the horrifying living conditions of the lower classes and claims that there is a relationship between the wild behavior of the lower class, drunkenness, and the high crime rates. The book also showed how farmers were unable to keep up with the competition of businessmen and thus were bounded to tenancy and eventually submerged into debt.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
During Harrison’s presidency, Congress became very active which was very unusual during the era. For the first time ever, Congress agreed to pass a billion dollar budget which included the McKinley Tariff of 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. The McKinley Tariff of 1890 increased taxes on foreign products over 48 percent. The McKinley Tariff of 1890 was passed as a tariff to protect the economy of the United States by trying to stop the purchases of foreign goods. In response to the extremely high tariff, European nations were angered and passed their own protection tariffs. As a result, the economy fell into an economic turmoil.In the election of 1892, the McKinley Tariff was a huge factor as to why Harrison lost to Grover Cleveland. The Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed business activities that would reduce market competition. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 increased the coinage of silver, but because the increase was still too small to help miners and farmers. In addition to the bill dollar budget, Civil War veterans, children, and widows or single mothers received an increased monthly pension. Also a bill was passed to protect the suffrage rights of African Americans, however this proved failure since it was defeated by the Senates.
Environment
Before Harrison was president, there were absolutely no new states that had been admitted into the union. However in the early years of Harrison’s presidential term, Congress ratified bills that allowed for four new states to join the union. These new states were South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. After those four states were admitted, the following year two more states joined the union.All of these six new states were Republican. These states were Idaho and Wyoming. With six new states entering the union, Harrison’s presidency is known for the most new states entering the union. In addition, these new states brought the emergence of a serious problem about the western communities. Land that used to be grasslands or dry terrains was industrialized into factories, farms, or vacation hotels. To finance the construction of these facilities, the federal government instituted more transportation, electric power, water, and communication to the western communities. With the industrialization of new territories, the population grew immensely.
Politics and Citizenship
With the election of Republican President Harrison, the Republicans were in power in the government. However in 1890, voters, mostly from the Midwest, replaced many Republicans with Democrats due to the fact that the Republicans passed many unpopular acts, such as the prohibition of alcohol and Sunday closing laws. Democrats were also supported by people who were not Anglo-Saxon or Protestant because the Democrats did not do anything to harm the public morale.Also in 1890,there was a growing agrarian dissatisfaction in the West and the South. Members of the Farmers’ Alliance provided the foundation of a new political part known as the Populist Party or the People’s party. Delegates from different states met in Omaha, Nebraska to draft a new political platform to nominate a president and vice president for the party. Their platform eventually became known as the Omaha platform which called for economic and political changes. The party demanded restoration of the government to the people by direct popular election of the U.S senators and the enactment of state laws by voters through referendums and initiatives placed on the ballot.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
President Harrison and a group of republicans tried to pass a policy to protect the civil rights of freed African Americans. However, his attempt failed which led to William Miller, President Harrison’s attorney general, to order a series of prosecutions of people who violated the voting rights in the South. But because the juries were filled with white members, the jury failed to convict any of the accused victims. In response, Harrison pressed for Congress to pass a policy that would secure equal rights among the people. Harrison supported the Federal Elections Bill, also known as the Force Bill, proposed by Henry Cabot Lodge and George Hoar In 1890. The Force Bill called for national government supervision of federal elections to protect African American voters in the South.
In 1890, Louisiana passed the Jim Crow laws and in 1891, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee passed the Jim Crow laws. Despite the fourteenth amendment which guaranteed equal protection of laws, the Jim Crow laws called for separate but equal facilities. By this, the Jim Crow laws required separated restrooms, park benches, and drinking fountains.
War and Diplomacy

Beginning with the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s, the United States had taken an interest in the conflicts of the Western Hemisphere and took the position of the protector of Latin America from the goals of the European nations. In 1889, Secretary of State James Blaine tried to establish closer relations between the United States and Latin American with the meeting of the first Pan- American Conference in Washington. Representatives from different nations of the Western Hemisphere attended the meeting in hopes of creating a long lasting and stableorganization for international cooperation for trade and other problems. As a result of the meeting, the Pan- American Union was formed in order to create political and economic cooperation between the two hemispheres.
In 1891, tensions arose between the United States and Chile when the death of two American sailors and several arrests of Americans occurred with Chileans in Valparaiso. President Harrison demanded an apology from Chile or else he will cut off relations with Chile which increased the tensions among the two countries. However the conflict was resolved when Secretary of State Blaine stepped in and took matters into his own hands.